Tea FAQS
How much caffeine does tea have?
What is a tea cozy?
Should I add milk to my Tea?
Should the milk go in the cups before Or after the tea?
What are some of the most popular varieties?
How is tea graded?
Is there something wrong with tea bags?
What does 'SFTGFOP1' mean?
Is Green Tea really beneficial for health?
What is a Tea Press ?
How much caffeine does tea have?
A cup of black tea, brewed for five minutes, contains one-third as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. This information is provided by Kaiser Permanente, Department of Nutritional Services study, 1986.
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What is a tea cozy?
A tea cozy is a fabric cover, much like an oven mitt, which is placed over a teapot in order to prevent heat loss. Tea cozies come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most are designed simply to cover the entire pot, handle and spout. Some, however, are made with openings and elastic so that they cover only the body of the teapot, leaving the handle and spout exposed so that you needn't remove the cozy in order to pour the tea.A cozy is primarily useful if you make several cups at a time and want the extra tea to remain hot in the pot until you're ready to drink it. Note that ceramic handles tend to become very hot when the pot is kept warm in this fashion.
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Should I add milk to my tea?
If you like. The classic additions to tea are: honey; milk; sugar; lemon milk and sugar; lemon and sugar; lemon and honey. -- Cream is too heavy for most teas and should be avoided in favor of milk.
-- Like cream, whole-homogenized milk is too heavy and strong tasting for most people. Low fat or skim milk seems to work best. As always, though, this is just advice, not divine command. If you like cream or whole milk in your tea, that's reason enough to use them.
-- Milk and honey don't seem to go very well together.
-- Do not add milk and lemon. The acidic lemon juice instantly curdles the milk. In any case, you should NOT add anything to green or oolong tea.
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Should the milk go in the cups before or after the tea?
This question is a matter of great contention and bitter disagreement in Great Britain. Some people seem to approach it more fervently than they do matters of theology. There is very little common ground in this debate. Perhaps the only thing both camps agree on is the historical fact that the earliest porcelain cups manufactured in England were likely to crack if very hot tea was poured directly into them. Placing the milk in the cup before adding the tea helped protect the cup. (Modern porcelain, however, does not need a milk buffer.) There is also some talk of "scalding" the milk, but some people say that milk-first scalds the milk; others, that tea-first scalds the milk. There is also disagreement about whether scalding the milk is good or bad; some say it improves the flavor, others that it ruins the milk.
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What are some of the most popular varieties?
Black, Unblended
Assam(India), Ceylon(Sri Lanka), Darjeeling(India), Keemun (China), Nilgiri(India), Sikkim (India), Yunnan (China)
Oolong
Ti Kuan Yin (Mainland China), Formosa Oolong (Taiwan), Pu-erh (China)
Green
Genmaicha(Japan), Gyokuro(Japan), Spider Leg (Japan), Mattcha (Japan), Sencha (Japan), Hojicha (Japan), Genmaicha (Japan), Longjing (China), Baozhong (China), Gunpowder (China).
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How is tea graded?
Grading is the description of the dry, processed leaf. The types of grades existing for black and green teas are different.For black teas the grades are as follows:
- Flowery Orange pekoe, orange pekoe - FOP
- Pekoe
- Souchong
- Broken Orange Pekoe - BOP
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
- Broken Pekoe
- Fannings
- Dust
The etymology of the word Pekoe can be traced back to a Chinese word meaning white which refers to the white hair on the leaf bud. In India and Sri Lanka it now refers to whole leaves of a uniform size which also include the leaves picked from the lower portion of the branch.
In the term FOP, "flowery" refers to the actual leaf bud.
"Orange" is generally believed to be a reference to the old Chinese tradition of using orange blossoms as a flavoring agent. Orange pekoe leaves are higher in quality terms than prekoe leaves.
Souchong means large leaves, generally not from the tip of the branch.
Processed tea is sieved to insure that leaves of uniform size are packed together. Fannings and dust are bits and pieces of tea leaves left over from the sievings that separate out whole leaves and large pieces of leaf. Fannings are slightly larger than dust.
Green Tea
Gunpowder (pellets, tightly rolled from young leaves and buds)The Chinese term for this tea Zhucha means "pearl Tea" and is grown in the Zhejiang province near Shanghai
Young Hyson ( young leaves rolled long and thin) Imperial (pellets loosely rolled from older leaves) Twankay (unrolled leaves of poor quality)
Oolong
Oolongs are graded in simple descriptive terms pertaining to the quality of drink that the leaves produce. The terms range from Extra Fancy to Common.The top grades are Fanciest Fancy and Extra Choice.
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Is there something wrong with tea bags?
Most of the tea which goes into tea bags is not very high quality tea since the broken grades are easier to infuse, this is why one might have reservations about the packing order of a tea bag!
goto topA tea graded as 'SFTGFOP1' is a Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - grade 1.
goto topIs Green Tea really beneficial for health?
Scientific studies have shown strong evidence that green tea may help reduce the risk of strokes and heart disease, and may also prevent certain types of cancers. Green tea has a high content of vitamins and minerals. It contains high quantity of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Green tea also contains vitamin B which are water soluble and quickly released into a cup of tea. Five cups of green tea a day will provide 5 -10% of the daily requirement of riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, and pantothenic acid. The same five cups of green tea also provide approximately 5% of the daily requirement of magnesium, 25% of potassium, and 45% of the requirement for manganese. Green tea is also high in fluoride. A cup of green tea provides approximately 0.1 mg of fluoride, which is higher than in fluorinated water.
goto topA tea press is a tea pot that is cylindrical in shape and usually made of glass. The pot has a plunging apparatus attached to the lid which is designed to force the tea leaves to the bottom of the pot and stop infusion. After the tea is finished, the lid and plunger are removed and the tea leaves discarded.
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